June Boom

Despite studio executives' insistence that DVD is a year-round business, big theatricals have traditionally been bunched up in the fourth quarter, with predictable additional bumps in January (the "fifth quarter"), March/April (Easter gift-buying season) and September (a head start on Q4). This year, with box office up around 12% in the first three months of the year and April opening with a bang with Fast and Furious and Hannah Montana The Movie, we're seeing some of the traditionally "down" months brimming with activity. Take June. Just announced this week for DVD/Blu-ray Disc release are Warner's He's Just Not That Into You, with $92.9 million in theatrical earnings, coming to home video on June 2.; Sony Pictures' The International ($25.5 million) on June 9; and Confessions of a Shopaholic ($43.7 box office), from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, on June 23. That brings to six the number of big-ticket theatricals (defined as any movie that made more than $25 million in U.S. theaters) coming to video in June. The others, announced previously, are Paramount's Defiance ($28.5 million), June 2; Warner's Gran Torino ($146.2 million), June 9; and Lionsgate's Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail ($89.9 million), June 16. All this, for a month that not so long ago was reserved for TV DVD releases and catalog promotions. Can't wait to see what July will bring....